Indian landscape

Maarten Johannes Balthasar Jungmann was a Dutch graphic artist, painter, draughtsman, etcher, lithographer, modeller, watercolourist and cabinetmaker. Maarten became a lithographer and learnt this trade at the Rotterdam printer Vürtheim. He then attended the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts. During and after his training, which he completed in 1895, he made trips to Venice, London, Marseille, Athens and Paris, where he had contact with Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso, among others.

Although he claims not to have been influenced by any direction, we can see influences from pointillism, luminism and fauvism in his work. After his studies, Jungmann moved into a studio at Havenstraat 86 in Delftshaven. In 1911, after two of his entries were awarded prizes at a competition organised by the Rotterdam Academy, a riot ensued around a first prize for ‘The man with the hat on one ear’, a life-size portrait of an inebriated man who bears a strong resemblance to the mayor of Rotterdam. When this work is rejected within the Boymans van Beuningen collection, Jungmann writes a peppery pamphlet. Most of Jungmann’s work is created during these productive years. River and harbour scenes, grand landscapes, still lifes. After a falling out with art dealer Vaarties in 1929, Jungmann brings 118 paintings to auction at the Notarishuis in Rotterdam. The pricing is low and he literally prices himself out of the market.

In 1922, Jungmann moved to Noordwijk and lived in an upstairs flat with a studio. After the economic crisis and a huge rent debt, he moved into box 15 of Van Rhijn’s Centraal car garage on Binnenweg in 1936. Over time, he had put all his money into art and antiques and founded Museum ‘Le Poole’ at the above address. In February 1943, he moved to Leiden. First to Nieuwstraat, then to Hooglandse Kerkgracht. The last years of his life he lived in a small church on the Oude Vest. On 9 December 1964, he died at the age of 87.